Introduction
Do you like to do custom decorations, but don’t know where to begin with them? Or maybe you have done candle holders before, but not with concrete?
Concrete candle holders look stunning and can be made from plastic containers you use every day. That makes them the ultimate affordable craft as you most likely have everything else than the concrete.
The best thing is, concrete candle holders are perfect for indoor use and outdoor use. These can handle any weather once the concrete curing process is over and you don’t have to worry about them breaking.
The concrete candle holders look great on your counters, windowsills, or tables and in your garden or on your patio. They can be painted a solid color or paint an image or stripes on them.
Alternatively, you can get a little bit artistic and mix some latex paint with water to get some light concrete colors. Follow this guide if you want to give it a try. Another way is using pigment powder which can give you deeper colors.
If you enjoy the porous surface of the concrete and don’t want to paint them, this is perfect way to have them in multiple colors. The light colors of concrete are also very beautiful.
However you want to decorate them, it is up to you.
Materials list
What you will need for this project is dry mix of concrete that only needs water to mix it. If you have cement, sand and gravel, you can try doing the mix yourself as well. Here is how concrete glass countertop is made to give you a custom idea.
Other than concrete, the materials that you will need for the concrete candle holder are:
- Concrete dry mix
- Plastics that are different sizes (orange juice, sour cream, butter, etc.)
- Yogurt cups
- Cooking spray
- Plastic sheets
- Large plastic bucket for mixing concrete
- Stir stick or one hand trowel
- Measuring cup
- Sanding pad
- Rubber gloves
- Outdoor patio paint or other dyes
How to make a concrete candle holder 10 steps
Step 1: Wash the plastic containers and yogurt cups thoroughly. You don’t want any food stains or other dirt on your candle holders and it will make removing them easier. Then dry them all completely.
These will be acting as our concrete candle molds.
Step 2: Then apply a small amount of cooking spray to the inside of your plastic concrete candle holder mold. This relates to the last part, cooking spray will stop the concrete from adhering to the plastic. Removing the mold will be a lot easier.
Step 3: Mix your concrete per the manufactures directions. If you don’t want to mix the whole bag, it can be a little hard.
In that kind of case, put enough concrete on your mixing bucket, add water slowly until you have concrete that you can make a ball in your hand and it can hold that form while still being soft.
You have to let the concrete sit for 3-5 minutes and after that mix it again. It will get hard during that time, but when you mix it again it will be soft again.
Step 4: Pour your concrete into your plastic mold and then press yogurt cups into the concrete. If your mold is large enough you can place 3 yogurt cups in there for three tea light candles.
The yogurt cups will stay down better if you place some rocks into each cup. An alternative way is to use flat weight on the mold surface, but if it’s too heavy and the mold is weak, it will alter the mold.
Make sure that the mold is on a flat surface. This will ensure that your candle holder doesn’t come out crooked. Then tap the mold a couple of times to bring the bubbles out of the concrete and to the surface.
If you enjoy porous surface, you don’t have to do this so much. It will leave small air pubbles on the surface that can look nice, but is random.
Step5: 5 minutes before your concrete is due to set twist the yogurt cups. Don’t remove them. The twisting will allow them to come out easier.
If you don’t know what time that is, usually concrete starts to hold form after something like an hour. You can read from the bag what the working time is, usually, after that is over the concrete starts to hold form.
Step 6: When the concrete is set remove the yogurt cups. It has still the wet look, but the walls won’t give in when you remove the cups.
Step 7: Just before the concrete permanently sets remove it from the plastic mold. There is a very short time to do this so make sure you watch the concrete constantly.
You can test it by touching the inside surface where the cups were. If it doesn’t give in you can continue. If it’s really soft it might not handle the removing of the mold so it’s good to wait for more.
If the mold is inexpensive, you can even cut it off the next day and if it’s smooth plastic it should be able to come of easily even if you’re a little late.
Step 8: Use the sanding pad to remove any rough edges all around the mold. This way you will have nice looking candle holder and it’s easy to sand while it hasn’t completely cured.
Step 9: Let the concrete fully set for 24-48 hours. This will allow the concrete to cure well.
Step 10: If you didn’t dye the concrete, apply a coat of spray paint to the candle holder and let it dry. You may want to apply a couple more coats letting the paint dry between coats.
It’s also possible to leave it at concrete surface. I’ve seen a lot of them on social media and they look good.
If you want to take steps further in custom crafting, you can even try making parts of candle holders with different colored wet concrete. Bottom layer with normal grey and the top with light blue for example. There are endless possibilities when you experiment with the colors.
Conclusion
Now you have a concrete candle holder just perfect for your patio. It’s really cheap craft to make so you can make tons and give some as presents. If you like these kinds of crafts, look up these garden spheres and concrete planters as well.
If you want to do some more decorations, there are also concrete leaves at the link. Even if this website is mostly about working with concrete, I try to find time to include some fun crafts that are easy to make.
What I like about crafting with concrete is that it’s so easy to do that pretty much your imagination is what’s the limit over here.
You can do any kind of containers like a concrete candle bowl with the garden sphere technique or even furniture if you set up forms.
